Rocky Mountain High

A relative's wedding in the Denver area gave me an excuse to spend a few days in Colorado recently.  I hadn't been there for any length of time since a week-long family vacation in the late 1990s.

I came back thinking I should spend a lot more time there.  What's not to like about the place?

It has cool cities.....Denver is hugely populated, but it's spread out enough not to notice, and it also has a pedestrian-friendly downtown, similar to Portland or Seattle.  Colorado Springs must be one of the largest cities in America without a bona fide skyscraper, helping make it visitor-friendly, with a great daily view of Pike's Peak.  I also spent time in the Denver-area towns of Golden (a modern day version of a formerly dusty western town) and Parker (a modern day version of a formerly sleepy bedroom town).

It has cool attractions.....The Red Rocks Amphitheater is a marvel of semi-natural modern architecture.  The Royal Gorge area is a mecca for active folks, including white water rafting and zip-lining, the latter which I did for the first time ever.  And don't forget about the mountains and ski resorts -- even in the summer, including the Breckenridge area that I visited for a few hours.

It has great weather.....The air is light and the sun shines 300+ days a year.  Sure, it snows in the winter, but it doesn't get bitterly cold, at least not for extended stretches.

And last but not least, it has free-minded enough people that it allows the sale of recreational marijuana.....This cannot be discounted.  Keeping some cannabis / edibles in the house is no different than having a six-pack of beer in the refrigerator.  Except that the cannabis is safer and healthier.

Judgement Day

Until this month, I can only think of one other time in my life when I was asked to judge some type of contest.  That was at least 20 years ago, when I judged written essays in a small scholarship competition.

I got to experience another form of judging this month at the Iowa State Fair.  For over two decades, my spouse and daughters have been entering food baking competitions there.  This year, we decided we wanted to see what it was like on the other side of the table, so we sponsored our own category.  This not only allowed our family to choose the category, but also choose the judges -- us, of course.

Months ago, we decided our competition would be chocolate raspberry dessert, and we provided our clever category name:  Death By Chocolate Raspberry.  This choice was largely based on my own bias for that type of dessert.  To ensure we'd have some entries, we put up $100 in prize money -- $60 for first, $30 for second, and $10 for third.

Judgment day came, and we were pleased to have 14 state fair entries with plenty of variety.  There were chocolate raspberry cheesecakes, cupcakes, brownies, and more.  As with most food categories, the entries weren't judged solely on flavor.  We had decided to use three criteria: 50% of the points were based on taste, 25% on appearance, and 25% on creativity.

Influenced by both time and a desire to not get sick, we judges divided the items among us, selected our favorites (the highest point-getters), and then got together to determine the best of the best.  In the end, a mocha chocolate, raspberry-filled cupcake came out on top, and a great time was had by all.

I hope to be a judge in the future for this or another Iowa State Fair food category.  Like anything else, after having experienced it for the first time, I'd be much better at it the next time.  Knowing what to look for in the recipe / item, what to say (or not to say) on the entrant comment cards, and how to consistently score different types of entries will all be more second-nature to me.

Also, I like eating.

RAGBRAI - 2018 Non-Edition

Since 2010, I've made an annual blog entry about what I saw while riding my bicycle on that July's RAGBRAI, a/k/a the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.  Had I started this blog before August 2009, there would have been many other entries like it; aside from one missed year due to injury, my best guess is I've ridden at least a day on 18 of the last 20 RAGBRAI's.

Make that 18 of the last 21, because I didn't participate this year.

There wasn't anything stopping me -- I still cycle a lot, I had the time, and the ride came through central Iowa, making it fairly easy to jump onto it.  I just didn't have the passion for it this year, and decided not to go.

I told people after the 2015 RAGBRAI that I was retiring from the ride, that I didn't care to do it anymore.  After riding in it another day in 2016, I said the same thing.

Last year, after renouncing retirement for the second time and riding my third career 100 mile day on RAGBRAI, I said it again.  Apparently this time, it took.

I had some FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) worries, but I was glad to say it never bothered me.  The only time I gave it much thought was when I went to a meeting in a town that the ride would later go through.  Watching all of the townsfolk out sprucing things up reminded me about how the red carpet is always laid out for the rolling party of RAGBRAI riders.  That's part of what makes it fun.

Who knows if there will be another RAGBRAI in my future?  Until then, I hope my fellow riders, such as Team Crack-A-Noon and Team Wasted Potential, will be able to carry on without me.

The Iowa Lakers

There comes a time in the life of some upper middle class (or higher) folks when they decide it would be a good idea to buy a second home.  It may be a small condo in a multi-story tower in a warm climate, it may be a log house in the mountains, it may be mansion on a beach estate in the Hamptons, it may be a lot of other things.  Whatever it is, it's usually a getaway from an already very nice dwelling somewhere in suburbia.

Here in the Midwest, where there are no mountain or oceans, a lot of folks are gung-ho about spending time somewhere else, but not always over 1000 miles away.  To fulfill this desire, many local jurisdictions have allowed small lake areas to be developed for housing and recreational purposes.

More specifically to where I live in Iowa, only a few of these lakes are natural, notably the so-called Iowa Great Lakes around Okoboji, Iowa.  This is an area that would accurately be described a summer resort, with plenty of restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues to justify a premium, vacation home price point.  There are perhaps one or two others like it in the state.

Most of Iowa lakes, however, are small and man-made, the result of damning rivers and streams for flood control.  All of these lakes also contain a higher content of agricultural fertilizer run-off of both the natural and man-made variety.  And none of them have the restaurants, shops, or entertainment venues to be considered anything close to a resort.

This is where it goes wrong for me.  I've no problem with owning more than one property.  I may well want that for myself one day (preferably on a golf course in the Southwest).  Also, I've no problem with those who want to live on a lake; that isn't for me, but it's different and calming, and I get it.  But what I find confusing is the number of people willing to pay inflated prices for a small, very part-time second residence, in a remote location on or near a dirty lake, in basically the same climate in which they already live.

Over the years, I've known quite a few people with these type of second homes, most of them with mixed feelings.  It's no exaggeration to say that at some point, I've heard every one of those people complain about that extra home at some point.  Either the cost, or the maintenance, or the lack of amenities, or the fact the weather only allows for a few months of lake enjoyment to begin with.

Regardless, they believe the serenity of a lake house - on any kind of lake - is worth those downsides.  It also helps that over the last 10 years, most of those properties have skyrocketed in price, due to a good economy and plenty of maturing buyers.  That's a good thing.

At least it is until we have another recession.  Then it could be a very bad thing.  It could be a major depreciating asset that can't be properly monetized, next to a polluted body of water, in the middle of nowhere.

But hey, at least it has a view for a few months a year.

Pulling (Me From) The Thread

First, there was the alphabet.
Then there was the printing press.
Then there was a messenger system.
Then there was a postal service.
Then there was a telephone.
Then there was facsimile.
Then there was email.
Then there was text messaging.

And that’s where we reached the point at which communication started to be less than good.

What makes me say this?  Bad habits, for one.  Non-verbal communication has always been worse than verbal, or in-person communication.

But lately, what makes me say this is being included in large group text message threads.  This week, and many others before it, I’ve been included in group texts in which certain group members feel compelled to reply to all, again and again and again.  So my phone goes off again and again and again, for messages I don’t want or need.

I probably should be glad to be considered worthy of being included in these threads.  Instead, I can’t wait until the messages fade away, assuming I can’t extract myself from the conversation beforehand.

Listen everybody:   If you are included in a large group text (or email message), do not feel compelled to reply to everyone unless it’s requested.  Otherwise, just reply to the sender individually.

No one else needs to know what you think.

Maybe even the original sender.

You Learn What You Work

I love the adage, "You learn what you live" which is based on an old poem titled Children Learn What They Live by Dorothy Law Nolte.  ("If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn....if a child lives with acceptance, he learns to love....")  I use it to explain behavior all of the time, and now I may be ready to adapt and apply this adage to occupations as well.  In other words, you learn what you work.

I recently had dinner with a former professional colleague from many years ago.  We worked together at a large, multi-national insurance company in the 1980's and 1990's, and while neither of us work there any longer, we've managed to stay in touch.

For the better part of two hours, we discussed a number of common individuals and personalities we worked with at that company.  Many of these folks had more lofty job titles than we did at the time, which is also what made them commonly known to us.  And most of them were lousy at their jobs.

After swapping stories about those mid-to-upper level management people, it became obvious to us that their work had little correlation to organizational success.  Most of them had far exceeded the Peter Principle, reaching a level even beyond their competence.  They were actually better examples of the so-called Dilbert Principle, meaning they were promoted to management because they would do less harm there than on the front lines.

However, what really struck me is how they didn't do any better managing their personal lives.  It was notable how many of them today are divorced, and/or obese, and/or still working because they can't afford to retire.  If there was any correlation, that was it -- if you aren't that good at your occupation, you probably aren't that that good at life, either.

Maybe you learn what you work?

Dear Graduating Class of 2018

Another school year ends, another commencement-style address begins:

To the college graduates of 2018:

Are you paying attention?

Not to me, not to any words of wisdom you might get from thousands of different college commencement address speakers.  Are you paying attention to what's going on in America?  To what's going on in the world?

Paying attention to civilization is the most important thing you should be doing now.  I know, it wasn't your strong suit the past several years.  You did enough to get your degree, but listening to long, boring lectures doesn't lend itself to paying attention.  For anyone.

If paying attention hasn't been your thing the past four (five? six?) years, it needs to be now.  Bad stuff is happening.  Stuff that has the potential to make your future miserable.  I'm not just referring to your job future, but your future of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Through a mixture of inattentiveness, conniver-y, and outright lying, certain individuals have been given power that far exceeds their ethical and moral capacity to handle it.  This has led to them placing other ethically- and morally- challenged people in powerful posts.

The not-so-surprising result is a government that isn't actually working for the people.  It's only working for, well, let's just say your chances of success are currently for less dependent on whether you have a college degree and for more on whether you are a white, heterosexual, Christian male.

Are you paying attention now?

The way to fix our broken government is to know what's going on.  The best way to know what's going on is to stay abreast of current events, and I don't mean by keeping up with your Instagram or Twitter feeds.  That isn't nearly good enough.

Watch the news, nationally and locally, and preferably on more than one channel.  Read a bunch of different papers, articles, and books.  Talk to a lot of people, and not just to your friends, who probably already think the same way as you do, or they wouldn't be your friends.

Show a little bit of passion for having a government and political system that works the right way, under the rule of law  -- after all, you're paying for it, even if you don't have a job.  Then, when election day rolls around, vote.

Pay attention!

Oh, and congratulations.